❓WHAT HAPPENED: For the first time in at least half a century, more immigrants left the United States than entered in 2025, according to a Brookings Institution report.
👤WHO WAS INVOLVED: Economists at the Brookings Institution, U.S. immigration enforcement agencies, and the Trump administration.
📍WHEN & WHERE: The report focuses on migration patterns in 2025, with projections into 2026.
💬KEY QUOTE: “We estimate that net migration was between –10,000 and –295,000 in 2025, the first time in at least half a century it has been negative.” – Brookings Institution
🎯IMPACT: The report anticipates a continued decline in net immigration in 2026.
New data suggests the United States experienced net out-migration in 2025, with more migrants leaving the country than entering it for the first time in at least half a century. According to a report released by the neoliberal Brookings Institution, the United States saw a significant decrease in immigrant entries in 2025, relative to 2024, with increased immigration enforcement during the first year of President Donald J. Trump’s second term in office resulting in both rising deportations and voluntary departures of foreign nationals in the country unlawfully.
“We estimate that net migration was between –10,000 and –295,000 in 2025, the first time in at least half a century it has been negative,” the report stated. It further projected, “In our assessment, net migration is likely to be very low or negative in 2026 as well.”
The Brookings Institution, which has consistently promoted open-border policies and a reliance on cheap foreign labor, contends that “reduced migration will dampen growth in the labor force, consumer spending, and gross domestic product (GDP).” However, late last year, President Trump’s Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent pointed to data that shows increased deportations have resulted in falling rent costs. Data from November 2025 shows that apartment rents fell 1.1 percent compared to the previous year, and 5.2 percent compared to November 2022.
Additionally, a Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) investigation found that mass immigration has a specific detrimental impact on lower-income Americans who earn too much to qualify for public housing assistance. “One key cause of elevated worst-case needs is immigration. Between 2021 and 2024, the foreign-born population of the United States increased by more than six million—the largest such increase over such a short period in American history,” the HUD investigation stated, adding: “This immigration-driven increase in households has contributed to a significant increase in housing demand, thus driving up housing prices. In fact, in some markets, immigration has accounted for nearly all of the increase in housing demand in recent years.”
The Brookings report attributed much of the decline in immigration to a slowdown in new arrivals through humanitarian parole, refugee programs, and illegal entries across the Southwest border. “Though deportations and other exits receive more media attention, a slowdown in new arrivals… has a bigger effect on reducing migration flows in 2025,” Brookings researchers stated.
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